Thanks, Rob, for giving me another reason to support my practical
decision not to argue for the abolition of FY comp.
> I don't want you to abolish FYComp either because if you did, the
> lit.heads in Canada would smile :) and say, see, it doesn't work.
> Of course they already say that, but without the "see".
But I'd also like to say that I agree with the other points you make,
about the purposes that FY comp classes serve, sort of in the course
of being small classes concerned with academic discourse (and
Marcy's certainly right about _those_ purposes, too).
> I'm not sure FYComp is the best place to accomplish those
> objectives but I think they're important ones. If those of us
> south of the border abolished FYComp, we'd need to come up with some
> way to answer those objectives in another way.
We haven't come up with that other way in Canada, either, I don't
think -- so there's some evidence that abolition wouldn't push
people toward solving the problem.
I _do_ have an idea about this, though, and I think I've mentioned
it on CASLL before. It's to invite faculty members to designate an
FY class (whether comp, biochemistry, or whatever) as a course which
has as a stated goal, in addition to being the usual FY course, that
other stuff, and in return for a description of how that other stuff
might be achieved, to restrict enrolment in that section to, say, 20
students.
I've also argued that that course might be made into a learning
community by linking it (enrolling the same students in it and at the
same time in one or two other courses).
But I guess the main point is that these are goals worth achieving --
if it can be done with FY comp courses, wonderful, but we don't need
to do it that way. And I think FY comp would be in a far stronger
position if such goals were explicitly parts of its mission, and the
course description students see. For one thing, it could give
academic writing a useful context.
-- Russ
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